V The Series (1984) – Part 1

After a very long delay and a second watching I would like to now look at the 19 episode V The Series that followed the two mini-series – V The Original Mini Series  & V : The Final Battle. If you haven’t seen the first two or read them, do so first before continuing on reading this post. Even though the series lasted just 1 season of 19 episodes, as a nostalgic favourite I’d like to split the season review into two posts.

The season begins right where we left off from the end of The Final Battle. On noting that Diana has escaped in a shuttle, Donovan follows pursuit and shoots down her shuttle forcing her to crash land and catches up to her. Then we fast forward 1 year later with earth celebrating their first anniversary of Liberation Day. The 5th column members who helped the Resistance movement have adjusted to life on earth and taking the antidote for the red dust every 12 hours to keep them safe. The humans in the resistance groups have gone their separate ways but Mike & Julie are dating while Martin is Mike’s new sound man for his camera work. Diana is being taken for trial, an associate of Ham Tyler (who now works for hire) shoots at her and she is thought to be dead. Actually she is being taken to a cabin in the woods to work for Science Frontiers, the company responsible for mass production of the Red Dust, at the behest of its CEO Nathan Bates. In exchange for revolutionary breakout science Nathan promises to keep Diana alive and in comfort. However Mike & Martin suspect the death was faked and find Diana. Martin knocks Mike off, wanting to kill Diana instead of reporting it back to the authorities. She gets the upper hand, burns the cabin with Martin in it and takes off with his pills. A dying Martin apologizes to Mike and tells him about her escape. Donovan meets Tyler and agree to pursue Diana together but they cannot stop her from signaling the fleet and Diana escapes to a Visitor Shuttle arrived from a new fleet hidden behind the Moon. Then Diana remarks that the Red Dust bacterium didn’t kill her although the last antidote pill did stop its effect. The Red Dust bacterium seems having no more effect on The Visitors: they can come back to Earth.

Meanwhile on earth, while her mother Robin is away, Elizabeth goes through a transformation and meta-morphs into a young, beautiful woman (Jennifer Cooke). She is taken care of by her grandfather Robert & Julie who then fight off an invading visitor group. After a brief struggle the visitors succumb to the rest dust and Julie takes Robert & Elizabeth to hide in a secret underground level beneath Los Angeles restaurant Club Creo – which is own by Elias! Willie, the vegetarian visitor who helped the resistance also works there. Diana discovers that the red dust does not work in warmer climates, meaning that 50% of the earth is still protected. She want to kill Nathan Bates, but has to change her plans, when Nathan tell her about a secret store of Red Dust toxin that he would release into the atmosphere should he be harmed. Diana is forced to deal with him, and Los Angeles is set up as an Open City, where humans and Visitors could both walk unarmed. As the visitors stream onto earth and occupy a lot of the cities the fighting starts yet again with further resistance groups being formed. Diana & new fleet security officer Lydia (June Chadwick) talks peace while readying the fearsome Triax superweapon that could reduce Los Angeles to rubble. Meanwhile, Resistance fighters activate a new weapon of their own: a captured mothership. Robert Maxwell is killed when he collides the mothership into the Triax in order to destroy it. Bates’ estranged son Kyle (Jeff Yagher), who helps a stranded Robin and helps get her to safety will also join the LA resistance.

Kyle meets Elizabeth and the two fall in love but things are complicated as Robin falls in love with Kyle as well. Mike is captured awakens to an ideal life in a world where the Earth has triumphed; however, this life is part of an alien holographic ruse aimed at gathering information about the Starchild Elizabeth. The top pupil at the visitor Youth Corps is Mike’s missing son Sean. Standing in the way of his rescue are a fearsome alien and the boy’s conflicted allegiance. Meanwhile Elizabeth, who is now an adult woman after days previously resembling a ten year old, reunites with her mother Robin, who has not seen her since her metamorphosis. Bates imposes a curfew in the open city of Los Angeles in an attempt to curb resistance activity; Donovan and Ham make plans to hit a Visitors’ conference. A citizen who rallies the Resistance to aid a downtrodden mining community has a dangerous secret agenda. Julie faces allegations of treason. When the Visitors place a force field around Los Angeles, the Resistance captures its creator as part of a plan to shut it down. The creator, a respected scientist who is kept prisoner by Diana, shows them how to destroy the force field but dies in the process. Diana then uses trickery to clone Elizabeth but the clone, who becomes savage as the cloning process is rushed, escapes and kills at random until she meets Elizabeth. A tracker sent to get the clone back kills the clone but he is in turn shot dead by Kyle.

Elizabeth beings to experience her powers of telekinesis. The leader send a military hero & his envoy Charles (Duncan Regehr) to take over the fleet from Diana with Lydia acting as Charles adjutant. While trying to defeat a visitor patrol Ham & Kyle are captured and Charles uses a new conversion (brainwashing process) to make Ham hate Donovan, feeding him false images of Mike initially kissing Ham’s missing wife and then sending the wife & daughter to be killed for visitor food. The resistance is able to free Ham but Kyle is still aboard the mothership. Charles arranges with Bates to have a prisoner exchange refereed by Bates himself; Kyle in exchange for Lydia, who is caught by Julie & Mike. However at the exchange Charles activates the key word for Ham and the latter shoots at Donovan. Elizabeth sensing something amiss in Ham uses her power to push his gun away but Nathan is shot instead. With the life of the leader of Los Angeles hanging by a thread, will the peace in Los Angeles last?

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